WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The FBI executed nearly 3.4million queries to a database of information without a warrant last year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported on Friday. This is nearly three times the number of the prior year.

The FBI data was, ODNI stated, being included in the transparency report for the first-time. It included approximately 1.9million queries made as part of investigations by foreign cyberattackers to compromise U.S. infrastructure such as power plants.

From December 2020 to December 2021, the number of queries was 3.4 millions. This is an increase from the 1.3million from December 2019 to December 2020.

The report stated that “certain steps FBI took to make sure U.S. persons protections applied to all U.S. people queries results in an overcount of U.S. individual queries.”

According to the article, one individual could use multiple queries at once and that each query could be repeated multiple times.

They were sent to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act database, which has information that was collected under Section 702. A warrant is not necessary.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACU) and privacy advocates are critical of Section 702’s FBI use. They claim that FISA was designed to detect foreign intelligence information, evidence of criminal activity, but not information on U.S. citizens.